Undergrad

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Undergraduates

Welcome to the Department of Communication

What is the role of communication in society? The UMass Amherst Department of Communication is dedicated to exploring the answers to that important question.

Communication is a fundamental social and cultural process, one that’s essential to human interaction and learning. The UMass Amherst Department of Communication emphasizes theories of communication and critical thinking. As a Communication major, you’ll develop analytical abilities that help you understand how communication works, whether in an argument between friends, a political speech, communication through social media or the web, cross-cultural interactions, or a film or television program.

Our department focuses on five areas in the undergraduate curriculum: Interpersonal Communication and Culture; Media and Popular Culture Studies; Media, Technology, and Society; Rhetoric and Performance Studies; and Film Studies. In addition we offer a variety of classes that focus on communication skills, including public speaking, writing and screenwriting, research methods, leadership and service learning, and video production.

And then? Our students go on to a range of professions and opportunities in media, government, education, and the corporate and nonprofit worlds, or they head to graduate school in the social sciences and humanities, public policy, law, and education.